My writing space has become a laboratory. In my latest Work-In-Progress, there is an extended chase/fight scene. I'm not huge on fight scenes really, and I rarely include them. Joy & Carnage, for example has none. Neither has Cold. So I've found myself asking, how do I write an action scene that consists of more that:

James ran and jumped. He punched the fellow in his face. The two of them tumbled down the slope until James exploded.

The general pattern in that scene is noun-verb-noun, noun-verb-noun, etc. To escape this, I've begun studying Haiku, a Japanese style of poetry that consists of three lines with five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. I'm experimenting with action scenes written in haiku form.

An example of an action-scene set to haiku would be:

Light poles like comets' tails

flew past in hurried flashes,

too fast to count them.

The driver veered left.

Vigilante fell sideways,

almost eating street.

After editing them back into prose, I hope that they'll possess a little more flavor than usual.

Vigilante is now officially my next project. I've started building the framework--number of chapters, average word per chapter requirements, order of events, general outline--I have a few plot issues to work through and a couple spiritual things to work into place.

Here's the general idea. Vigilante is going to be the story of a big city crimefighter who loves his city, but leaves it when he's offered a documentary deal with the Law & Justice Channel. the show bombs miserably, and he returns to the city to resume his duties. In essence, it is a retelling of The Prodigal Son which, in turn, was Christ's illustration of the Jewish nation's displeasure with the Gentiles' acceptance of righteousness.

I plan to spend another week on brain-storming before I actually put finger to key (because no one puts pen to paper anymore). Hopefully I'll get that part finished soon. She hasn't said anything, but I'm fairly certain that my wife isn't too happy that her brand new dining room table is covered with the little squares of paper I use to put my plot in order.

The torpedo is away. I sent my proposal off to my agent last night. I'm glad I waited those few extra days because a couple happy surprises made it into my inbox at the last moment, allowing me to polish the proposal a little bit more.

Here's an interesting tidbit, by the way: I spent the past week with my youth group at Youth America, a church camp in Oklahoma City. In addition to teaching teens, they provide leadership seminars for the youth pastors and leaders. Better yet, they provide free coffee and a quiet "leaders' lounge" for those of us who have paperwork to do. I took advantage of the lounge to get the synopsis done.

As some of you may know, my novel, Joy & Carnage, is (in a very general sense) about school shootings and revenge. While I was finishing up the synop, a guy came and politely asked what I was writing about. I told him and was completely surprised to find out that he was first pastor on the scene in Littleton, after the Columbine shootings. I received some terrific feedback from him, and he's made himself available to me if I have any questions.

Neat, huh? For more on the novel, click HERE.

My agent and I are preparing to send off the proposal for my newest novel, Joy & Carnage. So that I have something to show, I photoshopped this picture for my MySpace and Blogspot. On the former, it doesn't display so well, but here it is for you to see. The girl is Mercedes, and though I wasn't able to put a scar across her face as she has in the story, I'm fairly happy with this rendition.

A modified version of the proposal goes something like this:

More than a year before the tragedy at Columbine, there was Shadow Valley. Three teenagers, driven to the extreme by the painful jabs of their peers, conspire to murder their entire school in one day.

Mercedes was one of the most popular girls in school. Attractive. Smart. Loyal to her best friend, Becca. All of that changes one rainy night, when a crazy stunt leaves her disfigured and her best friend, dead. Tossed from her elite circle of friends, she’s adopted by Eli and Damien, a pair of misfits who devise the terrible plan. It takes only one cruel prank, at her expense, for Mercedes to decide to join them. Ultimately, their plan fails because Eli, their mastermind, betrays them.

Ten years pass and the three students receive invitations to the Shadow Valley High School reunion. Damien and Mercedes have been planning for this night for almost a decade. With thousands of dollars at their disposal, and a burning desire for vengeance, the two believe that nothing can stop them. The only person who stands a chance at dissolving the danger is the original ringleader, Pastor Eli Shepherd. Can a poor, haunted, and troubled man of God, stop two determined monsters?

Joy & Carnage is a forked tale—two stories, told in chapters that alternate between 1998 and 2008. It follows the movements of Eli, Damien, and Mercedes during the week preceding each attack. The unique layout of this story highlights how each tale parallels the other. The preparation for one attack is followed by preparations for the other. Torment is followed by torment and escalation, by escalation. The two stories fuse together in Chapter 18, which begins with the header “1998 & 2008” and features a chapter that can be fit into either timeline. The climax and turning point of both stories occur in this chapter, and are settled in two very different ways as the twin storylines diverge onto their original tracks.

Over the course of 93,000 words, the reader is introduced to Mercedes, a broken girl whose hollowed heart becomes filled with poison and thorns. They meet Eli who, though once a hellion himself, now stands as Mercedes’ only chance for redemption—if she can forgive his earlier betrayal. And readers will watch as Damien, who appears and disappears like a phantom, acts as the diabolical tempter of both. Their emotions, motivations, and conflicts are laid bare for the audience to feel. No one will deny understanding the characters’ longing for vengeance, but Joy & Carnage reveals a better way.

This is me not complaining. I just burnt up an entire weekend preparing a fiction proposal for my literary agent, Dave Robie. But you know what? I'm not complaining a bit. My novel, Cold, has been finished for a long time and I'm on my second agent. Thankfully, on the second time around, I was picked up by a great guy that is positive about my work and, more importantly, returns my e-mails in a timely manner.

Some of you that know me know how long I've been pushing to get my manuscript seen. I know, because a couple of you have been bugging me to see it for about the same length of time.

Anyway, what this means is this: my manuscript now has a proposal that can be send to the aquisition editors of various publishing houses. Once that's done, I'll be waiting for a thumbs-up from one of them. I've got a few favorites, but I know my agent will find the best ones. Hopefully, he'll be able to make something out of the chicken scratch I call a proposal (I don't know how I made formatted text into chicken scratch, but I did) and we'll get this thing I call a would-be career moving.

To all of you, thanks for hanging in there with me.

My Online EarlyWarning System (OEWS) has informed me that several publishing houses are hacking their way into my hard drive in an attempt to stake a claim on my next publishable work. I suppose I could just e-mail them with a copy, but I don't want to seem desparate.

While they get right on that, let me share with you what's going on with my writing. Many of you may already be aware that I am publishing a monthly newsletter. What you are only now just finding out is that in the next few weeks, I'll be posting those articles here, on a one-month-delay-basis so you can share them with your friends after you've read them yourself. This ought to cause some discussion as anytime I mention the words "election" and "theology" together, I get some kind of response.

I've got three long-term projects on my desk, at the moment:
~Joy and Carnage: a thriller about a deadly ten-year reunion. This is the main thrust of my efforts, and the next book to be sent to my agent.
~After Me: A new and hopefully scarier twist on the old zombie tales. There's very little "Christian" message in this one. More than anything, I wanted to show what an awful thing it would be to be deprived of one's free will.
~Back In A Week: The Book For People Whose Testimonies Suck. The title says it all. Raised in church, as many are, I have a boring testimony. I've tried making up a better one, but it failed. This is my attempt to tell it as it is, with pointers on why a boring testimony is okay. It's also a book for those who have grown weary of church, wonder about coming back, but can't make up their minds to do it.

I'm also looking into doing some freelance writing for Home Journals. It's not exactly my genre, but I might make some spare cash doing what I love.

As I get more of my online commentary posted here, I'll be building a Table of Contents to make things easier for you.

Lastly, welcome to my friend Ray and Good Night.
~Jeremiah